On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 07:49:17 -0000, "WeatherCam"
wrote:

And I think it was little old me that first raised the question on this NG
of strong winds for the weekend whilst all of you were still getting excited
over a couple of cms of the white stuff!!

I must say that in the whole of my local area (stretching from the
Solent coastline to Southampton) the "couple of cms" of white stuff
was more unusual, caused more problems, disruption and excitement
than yesterday's winds.

Maximum gusts of 58 mph (Southampton Airport) and 68mph (Solent MRSC)
are more common in these parts than 36 hours of snow and ice/frozen
slush on the ground. I'm pretty sure that more damage and personal
injury would (unfortunately) have been caused by the snowstorm and its
after effects than from yesterday's gales.

Which is not to minimize the seriousness of such gales for seagoers
(and potentially others, too)... but neither should the snowstorm be
dismissed lightly.

--
Dave
Fareham.